Wikipedia

John C. Lilly

For other people named John Lilly, seeJohn Lilly (disambiguation).

John Cunningham Lilly(January 6, 1915 – September 30, 2001)[1]was an American physician,neuroscientist,psychoanalyst,psychonaut,philosopher, writer, and inventor. He was a member of a group of counterculture thinkers that includedTimothy Leary,Ram Dass,andWerner Erhard,all frequent visitors to the Lilly home. He often stirred controversy, especially among mainstream scientists.

John C. Lilly
Born
John Cunningham Lilly

(1915-01-06)January 6, 1915
St Paul, Minnesota,U.S.
DiedSeptember 30, 2001(2001-09-30)(aged 86)
Los Angeles, California,U.S.
Alma mater
Known forIsolation tank
RelativesJulia Cunningham(cousin)
Websitewww.johnclilly.com

Lilly conducted high-altitude research duringWorld War IIand later trained as a psychoanalyst. He gained renown in the 1950s after developing theisolation tank.He saw the tanks, in which users are isolated from almost all external stimuli, as a means to explore the nature of human consciousness. He later combined that work with his efforts to communicate with dolphins. He began studying howbottlenose dolphinsvocalize, establishing centers in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and later San Francisco, to study dolphins. A decade later, he began experimenting with psychedelics, includingLSD,often while floating in isolation.[2]His work inspired two Hollywood movies,The Day of the Dolphin(1973) andAltered States(1980), as well as the videogame seriesEcco the Dolphin.

Lilly's Maxim

In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits. These limits are to be found experimentally and experientially. When so found these limits turn out to be further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits.[3]

Early life and education

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Lilly was born to a wealthy family on January 6, 1915, inSaint Paul, Minnesota.His father was Richard Coyle Lilly, president of the First National Bank of St. Paul. His mother was Rachel Lenor Cunningham, whose family owned the Cunningham & Haas Company, a large stockyards company in St. Paul. Lilly had an older brother, Richard Lilly Jr., and a younger brother, David Maher Lilly. A fourth child, Mary Catherine Lilly, died in infancy.[4]

Lilly showed an interest in science at an early age. At thirteen years old, he was an avid chemistry hobbyist, supplementing his makeshift basement laboratory with chemicals given to him by a pharmacist friend. Students at his parochial Catholic grade school called him "Einstein Jr."[5]At age 14 he enrolled at St. Paul Academy (SPA), a college preparatory academy for boys, where his teachers encouraged him to pursue science further and conduct his experiments in the school laboratory after hours.[4]

While at SPA, Lilly also further developed his interest in philosophy. He studied the works of many of the great philosophers, finding himself especially attracted to thesubjective idealismof Irish theologian and philosopherGeorge Berkeley.[4]

Despite his father's wish that he go to an easternIvy Leagueuniversity to become a banker, Lilly received a scholarship at theCalifornia Institute of TechnologyinPasadena, California,where he studied biology. He was the president of the ski club and a member of the drama club, and lived inBlacker House.[6]After his first year, Caltech learned that Lilly was from a wealthy family and cancelled his scholarship, forcing him to go to his father for help. Dick Lilly set up a trust fund to pay the tuition and eventually became a benefactor of the college. Lilly continued to draw on his family wealth to fund his scientific pursuits throughout his life.[4]

In 1934, Lilly readAldous Huxley'sBrave New World.The pharmacological control methods of Huxley's dystopia and the links between physical chemical processes of the brain and subjective experiences of the mind helped inspire Lilly to give up his study of physics and pursue biology, eventually focusing onneurophysiology.[4]

Lilly was engaged to Mary Crouch at the beginning of his junior year at Caltech. Months before their wedding, he took a job with a lumber company in the Northwest to soothe a bout of "nervous exhaustion" brought on by the pressures of academia and his upcoming marriage. During this sabbatical he was hospitalized after injuring his foot with an ax while cutting brush. His time in the trauma ward inspired him to become a doctor of medicine.[7]

In 1937, while Lilly was looking for a good medical school, his wealthy and well-connected father arranged a meeting between Lilly andCharles Horace Mayoof the famousMayo ClinicinRochester, Minnesota.Following Mayo's advice, Lilly applied and was accepted toGeisel School of MedicineatDartmouth CollegeinHanover, New Hampshire,where he became good friends with Mayo's son,Charles William Mayo.Lilly graduated from Caltech with a Bachelor of Science degree on June 10, 1938, and enrolled at Dartmouth the following September.[4]

At Dartmouth, Lilly launched into the study of anatomy, performing dissections on 32 cadavers during his time there. He once stretched out an entire intestinal tract across the length of a room to determine its actual length with certainty.[4]

During the summer after his first year at Dartmouth, Lilly returned to Pasadena to participate in an experiment with his former Caltech biochemistry professor Henry Borsook. The purpose of the experiment was to study the creation ofglycocyamine,a major source of muscle power in the human body. The experiment involved putting Lilly on a completely protein-free diet while administering measured doses ofglycineandarginine,the two amino acids that Borsook hypothesized were involved in the creation of glycocyamine. The experiments pushed Lilly to extreme physical and mental limits; he became increasingly weak and delirious as the weeks went on. The results of the experiment confirmed Borsook's hypothesis and Lilly's name was included among the authors, making it the first published research paper of his career. It was also one of the first instances of a lifelong pattern of experimenting on his own body to the point of endangering his health.[4]

After two years at Dartmouth, Lilly decided that he wanted to pursue a career in medical research, rather than therapeutic practice as was standard for Dartmouth medical students at that time. He decided to transfer to the medical school at theUniversity of Pennsylvania,which would provide him with better opportunities for conducting research.[4]

At the University of Pennsylvania, Lilly met Professor H. Cuthbert Bazett, a protege of British physiologistJ. B. S. Haldane.Bazett introduced Lilly to Haldane's view that scientists should never conduct an experiment or procedure on another person that they have not first conducted on themselves, a view Lilly embraced and attempted to exemplify throughout his career. Bazett took a liking to the young, enthusiastic graduate student, and set Lilly up with his own research laboratory. While working under Bazett, Lilly created his first invention, the electrical capacitance diaphragm manometer, a device for measuring blood pressure. While designing the instrument, he received electrical engineering advice from biophysics pioneerBritton Chance.Chance also introduced Lilly to the world of computers, which was still in its infancy.[4]

While finishing his degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Lilly enrolled in a class entitled "How to Build an Atomic Bomb." He and several other students transcribed their notes from the class into a book with the same title. The director of the Manhattan Project,General Leslie Groves,attempted to suppress publication of the book, but was unable to because no classified data were used in writing the book.[8]

Lilly graduated with a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942.[9]

Career overview

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Lilly was a physician andpsychoanalyst.He made contributions in the fields ofbiophysics,neurophysiology,electronics,computer science,andneuroanatomy.He invented and promoted the use of anisolation tankas a means ofsensory deprivation.[10]He also attemptedcommunication between humans and dolphins.[9][11][12]

Lilly's career as a scientist began doing research for universities and government. He gradually began researching less conventional topics. He published 19 books, includingThe Center of the Cyclone,which describes his own LSD experiences, andMan and DolphinandThe Mind of the Dolphin,which describe his work with dolphins.[13]

In the mid-1950s, Lilly began dolphin cognition and communication research, with an intensive period of work through the late 1960s. This period brought many discoveries about dolphin anatomy and brain structure, as well as behavioral and communication observations. Originally researching at Coconut Grove, Florida, Lilly purchased a property in St. Thomas in 1960. The seaside lab was converted into a dolphin–human cohabitation house by purposely flooding part of the building.[4]

In the 1980s Lilly directed a project that attempted to teach dolphins a computer-synthesised language. He designed a future "communications laboratory" that would be a floating living room where humans and dolphins could chat as equals and develop a common language.[4]In the 1990s Lilly moved toMaui,Hawaii, where he lived most of the remainder of his life.[citation needed]

Research

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During World War II, Lilly researched the physiology of high-altitude flying and invented instruments for measuring gas pressure. After the war, he trained in psychoanalysis at the University of Pennsylvania, where he began researching the physical structures of the brain andconsciousness.In 1951 he published a paper showing how he could display patterns of brain electrical activity on a cathode ray display screen using electrodes he devised specially for insertion into a living brain. Furthermore, Lilly's work[14]onelectrical stimulationof the nervous system gave rise tobiphasicchargebalancedelectrical stimulationpulses (later known as "Lilly's wave" or "Lilly's pulses"[15]), now an established approach to design of safe electrical stimulation inneuroprosthetics.[16]In the 1960s he sponsored research onhuman–animal communicationwith a dolphin.[4]

Development of the isolation tank

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Allen Ginsberg,Timothy Leary,and John C. Lilly in 1991

In 1953, Lilly began a job studyingneurophysiologywith the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Corps. At theN.I.M.H.in 1954,[17][18][19][20]with the aim of isolating a brain from external stimulation, he devised the firstisolation tank,a dark soundproof tank of warm salt water in which subjects could float for long periods in sensory isolation. Lilly and a research colleague were the first subjects of this research. What had been known as perceptual isolation or sensory deprivation was reconceptualized as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (R.E.S.T.).[21]

Lilly later studied other large-brained mammals and during the late 1950s he established a facility devoted to fostering human–dolphin communication: the Communication Research Institute on St. Thomas in theVirgin Islands.During the early 1960s, Lilly and coworkers published several papers reporting that dolphins could mimic human speech patterns.[22][23]

S.E.T.I.

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Lilly was interested in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. In 1961 a group of scientists including Lilly gathered at theGreen Bank Observatoryto discuss the possibility of using the techniques of radio astronomy to detect evidence of intelligent life outside the solar system. They called themselvesThe Order of the Dolphinafter Lilly's work with dolphins. They discussed theDrake equation,used to estimate the number of communicative civilizations in our galaxy.[24]

Exploration of human consciousness

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In the early 1960s, Lilly was introduced topsychedelic drugssuch asLSDand began a series of experiments in which he ingested a psychedelic drug either in an isolation tank or in the company of dolphins. These events are described in his booksProgramming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer,published in 1968, andThe Center of the Cyclone,published in 1972. Following advice fromRam Dass,Lilly studiedPatanjali's system ofyoga(findingI. K. Taimni'sScience of Yoga,a modernized interpretation of theSanskrittext, most suited to his goals). He also paid special attention toself-enquirymeditation advocated byRamana Maharshi,and reformulated the principles of this exercise with reference to his human biocomputer paradigm (described inLilly (1968)andLilly (1972)).

Lilly later traveled toChileand trained with the spiritual leaderOscar Ichazo,whose attitude to metaphysical consciousness exploration Lilly characterized as "empirical".[25]Lilly wrote that he had achieved the maximum degree ofsatori-samādhiconsciousness during his training.[26]

Lilly's maxim: "In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits. These limits are to be found experimentally and experientially. When so found these limits turn out to be further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits. However, in the province of the body there are definite limits not to be transcended."[3]

"Solid State Intelligence"

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Solid State Intelligence (S.S.I.) is a malevolent entity described by Lilly in his 1978 autobiography,The Scientist.According to Lilly, the network of computation-capablesolid statesystems (electronics) engineered by humans will eventually develop into an autonomous "bioform." Since the optimalsurvivalconditions for this bioform (low-temperaturevacuum) are drastically different from those humans need (room temperature aerial atmosphere and adequate water supply), Lilly predicted adramatic conflictbetween the two forms of intelligence.[27][28]

Earth Coincidence Control Office (E.C.C.O.)

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In 1974, Lilly's research using variouspsychoactive drugsled him to believe in the existence of a certain hierarchical group ofcosmic entities,the lowest of which he later dubbed Earth Coincidence Control Office (E.C.C.O.) in an autobiography published jointly with his wife Antonietta (often called Toni). Lilly states that "[t]here exists a Cosmic Coincidence Control Center (CCCC) with a Galactic substation called Galactic Coincidence Control (GCC). Within GCC is the Solar System Control Unit (SSCU), within which is the Earth Coincidence Control Office (ECCO)."[29]

Lilly also wrote that there are nine conditions that should be followed by people who seek to experience coincidence in their own lives:

  1. You must know/assume/simulate our existence in E.C.C.O.
  2. You must be willing to accept our responsibility for control of your coincidences.
  3. You must exert your best capabilities for your survival programs and your own development as an advancing/advanced member of E.C.C.O.'s earthside corps of controlled coincidence workers. You are expected to use your best intelligence in this service.
  4. You are expected to expect the unexpected every minute, every hour of every day and of every night.
  5. You must be able to maintain conscious/thinking/reasoning no matter what events we arrange to happen to you. Some of these events will seem cataclysmic/catastrophic/overwhelming: remember to stay aware, no matter what happens/apparently happens to you.
  6. You are in our training program for life: there is no escape from it. We (not you) control the long-term coincidences; you (not we) control the shorter-term coincidences by your own efforts.
  7. Your major mission on earth is to discover/create that which we do to control the long-term coincidence patterns: you are being trained on Earth to do this job.
  8. When your mission on planet Earth is completed, you will no longer be required to remain/return there.
  9. Remember the motto passed to us (from G.C.C. via S.S.C.U.): "Cosmic Love is absolutely Ruthless and Highly Indifferent: it teaches its lessons whether you like/dislike them or not."[30]

Personal life

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Lilly married Mary Crouch in 1936. In 1937, they had their first son, John Jr. Lilly. In 1943, they had their second son, Charles Lilly. In 1958, Lilly moved to the Virgin Islands.[4]

In 1959, Lilly and Mary divorced but would remain friendly thereafter.[19]During the same year (1959) Lilly married Elisabeth Bjerg[10]whom he met on the islands. She was a divorced former fashion model and already had three children of her own. In 1960 the couple had Lilly's only biological daughter,[19]Cynthia Olivia Roslyn. In May 1968, Lilly and Elisabeth separated, and they later divorced.[31]Elisabeth left and took their children with her.[32]

While still living in Los Angeles, Lilly met Antonietta (Toni) Lena in February 1971. Lena already had a daughter, Nina Carozza. Lilly and Lena formed a romantic as well as a spiritual relationship which later inspired the writing of their bookThe Dyadic Cyclone(1974).[33]Lilly later described Lena as his "best friend, love, and wife."[34]During the same year (1971) Lilly and his new family moved to Malibu, California, where they organized workshops with Lena.[35]Lena died in 1986.[citation needed]Their daughter Nina Carozza Lilly continued living at Lilly's house in Malibu even after Lilly had moved out in 1992.[citation needed]

During the subsequent years, Lilly adopted two more daughters, includingLisa Lyon.[36]

Lilly continued living in Malibu until 1992. In 1992 he moved to the Hawaiian island ofMauiwhere he continued his research with dolphins and whales in the wild. From there he also continued travelling to and lecturing in Japan, Europe and the United States.[citation needed]

Death

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Lilly died of heart failure at age 86 in Los Angeles on September 30, 2001. His remains werecremated.[1][11]

Legacy

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His literary rights and scientific discoveries were owned by Human Software, Inc., while his philanthropic endeavors were owned by the Human Dolphin Foundation. The John C. Lilly Research Institute, Inc. continues to research topics of interest to Lilly and carry on his legacy.[citation needed]

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Lilly's work with dolphins and the development of the sensory deprivation tank have been referenced in movies, music and television productions.Dolphin Island: A Story of the People of the Seais a 1963 novel byArthur C. Clarkeset in a strange and fascinating research community where a brilliant professor tries to communicate with dolphins. In the 1972 novelThe Listeners,Lilly and the other scientists who were members of theOrder of the Dolphinare mentioned as pioneers.[37]

The 1967 French science fiction thrillerUn animal doué de raisonbyRobert Merle(translated into English asThe Day of the Dolphinin 1969) features a central character who is a government scientist with similar ideas to those of Lilly.[38]

In the 1973film based on the book,George C. Scottportrays a Lilly-esque scientist, known to the dolphins as "Pa," who succeeds in teaching a dolphin to speak elementary English.[39]

The 1980 movieAltered States,based onPaddy Chayefsky's novel of the same name, features actorWilliam Hurtregressing to a simian form by ingestingpsychoactive substancesand then experiencing the effects of prolonged occupation of a sensory deprivation chamber.[40][41][42]

In 1985,Dale Petersonand earlyart gamedesignerJohn O'Neillconsulted Lilly for assistance in developing theirCommodore 64gameThe Dolphin's Pearl(later retitled asThe Dolphin's Rune).[43][44]

The video gameEcco the Dolphin(1992) also contains references to Lilly, including being named in reference to the Earth Coincidence Control Office.[45]

American avant-garde musicianLaurie Andersonreleased a spoken-word song about Lilly titled "John Lilly" on her 1995 album,The Ugly One with the Jewels.[46]

In 2001, supergroupOysterhead,created a song "Oz is Ever Floating" referencing the tanks of John C. Lilly.[47]

On June 15, 2014, comediansDave AnthonyandGareth Reynoldspublished an episode of their podcastThe Dollopabout Lilly, where they detail his life, research, and drug use.[48]

In 2019, Lilly's research was featured in the sixth season ofDrunk Historyin the episode entitled "Drugs".[49]

Inventions

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Besides theisolation tank,Lilly invented:[citation needed]

  • Micrometric measurement of the melting point of drugs (Micro-melting Point Device for Drugs, 1940)
  • Electric manometer (Electrical Capacitance Diaphragm Manometer, 1942)
  • Nitrogen meter (Nitrogen Meter, 1943)
  • Apparatus for measuring pressure variations (Variable Pressure and Mechanical Capacitor, 1947)
  • Apparatus for measuring respiratory flow (Respiratory Flow Meter, 1950)
  • Multi-Channel Electrical Imaging Apparatus (25 Channel Bavatron and Electro-Iconograms, 1950)

Bibliography

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Selected articles

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  • Lilly, J. C.; Austin, G. M.; Chambers, W. W. (July 1952)."Threshold movements produced by excitation of cerebral cortex and efferent fibers with some parametric regions of rectangular current pulses (cats and monkeys)"(PDF).Journal of Neurophysiology.15(4):319–41.doi:10.1152/jn.1952.15.4.319.PMID14955703.
  • Lilly, J. C.; Hughes, J. R.; Alvord, E. C.; Galkin, T. W. (April 1, 1955). "Brief, Noninjurious Electric Waveform for Stimulation of the Brain".Science.121(3144):468–469.Bibcode:1955Sci...121..468L.doi:10.1126/science.121.3144.468.PMID14358670.
  • Lilly, John C. (1956). "Mental Effects of Reduction of Ordinary Levels of Physical Stimuli on Intact, Healthy Persons".Psychiatric Research Reports.Vol. 5. pp.1–9.
  • Lilly, J. C.; Miller, A. M. (1961). "Vocal Exchanges between Dolphins".Science.
  • Lilly, John C.; Shurley, Jay T. (1961). "Experiments in solitude, in maximum achievable physical isolation with water suspension, of intact healthy persons". In Flaherty, Bernard E. (ed.).Psychophysiological Aspects of Space Flight.New York: Columbia University Press.OCLC609293243.
  • Lilly, J. C. (1962). "Vocal Behavior of the Bottlenose Dolphin".Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.

Books

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Co-authored

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See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^abJohn C. LillyatNNDB.
  2. ^Lilly (1956).
  3. ^abLilly (1968),pp. 5–6.
  4. ^abcdefghijklmnLilly (1996).
  5. ^Jeffrey & Lilly (1990),p. 17.
  6. ^Caltech Associated Student Body (1938).
  7. ^Jeffrey & Lilly (1990),p.278.
  8. ^Kitchens (2016).
  9. ^abHoughton (2001).
  10. ^abBurnett (2016).
  11. ^abRevkin (2001).
  12. ^Casey (2016).
  13. ^OAC staff (2020).
  14. ^Lilly, Austin & Chambers (1952).
  15. ^Donaldson & Donaldson (1986).
  16. ^Lilly et al. (1955).
  17. ^Black (1979),p. 60.
  18. ^Gelb & Caldicott (2007),p. 140.
  19. ^abcLilly (1996),p.[page needed].
  20. ^Streatfeild (2008),p. 116.
  21. ^Baruss & Vletas (2003),p. 45.
  22. ^Lilly & Miller (1961).
  23. ^Lilly (1962).
  24. ^Smith (1977),pp. 28–29.
  25. ^Lilly (1972).
  26. ^Drury (2011),p. 127ff.
  27. ^Lilly (1996),p. 151.
  28. ^Williams (2019).
  29. ^Lilly & Lilly (1976),p. 20.
  30. ^Lilly & Lilly (1976),pp. 20–21.
  31. ^Burnett (2013),p. 618.
  32. ^Casey (2016),p.[page needed].
  33. ^Lilly & Lilly (1976),p. 123.
  34. ^Bailey (2007).
  35. ^Lilly & Lilly (1976),pp. 104, 136.
  36. ^Green (2023).
  37. ^Gunn (1972),p. 58.
  38. ^Burnett (2016),p. 40.
  39. ^Canby (1973).
  40. ^Ebert (1980).
  41. ^Hooper (1983).
  42. ^Williams (2008).
  43. ^Yaktal (1985).
  44. ^Forman (1984).
  45. ^Jones (2015).
  46. ^Tynes (1999).
  47. ^Thillet (2004).
  48. ^Anthony & Reynolds (2014).
  49. ^White (2019).

Works cited

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Further reading

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